How much Idaho County residents earn annually is almost as interesting in how those figures vary depending on factors such as educational levels and gender.

Just what is mean versus median?

The mean is the average value of the number: Add all the numbers together and then divide the result by the number of items in the set.

The median is the middle value of the numbers: Take the numbers and put them in the order from lowest to highest, and take the number in the middle to be the median.

Nearly half of Idaho County’s working population falls within the annual earnings range of $25,000 to $49,999. This is according to five-year estimate figures in the 2008-2012 American Community Survey recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Census survey reports during this five-year period looked at earnings in the past 12 months, figured in 2012 inflation-adjusted dollars. The report estimated 3,809 of Idaho County’s population as full-time, year-round workers with earnings. Of this, 25.8 percent earned between $25,000 to $34,999, followed by 20.2 percent who earned between $25,000 to $49,999.

At the low end, 5 percent of that 3,809 total earned between $1 to $9,999; and at the top, 1.4 percent earned $100,000 or more.

Overall, Idaho County mean earnings reported in this survey were $37,529; broken out by gender it showed males averaged $43,686 and females $29,334.

Comparing earnings by educational attainment, the Census survey then looked at the Idaho County population 25-years-old and older with earnings — the median (middle value of numbers) here was $25,175; by gender this split to medians of $31,062, male, and $20,150, female. Breaking this down by education, median earnings are as follows:

• Less than high school graduate: $12,194;

• High school graduate or equivalent: $22,598;

• Some college or associate’s degree: $23,847;

• Bachelor’s degree: $38,333;

• Graduate or professional degree: $43,125.

Of these five categories, females reported higher median earnings – a $5,857 difference — than males only in the “less than high school graduate” listing: $17,650 for women versus $11,793 for men. Otherwise, males reported higher median annual earnings versus females in the remainder, with the largest difference seen in those with some college or an associate’s degree, and the smallest gap for those with a bachelor’s degree: